Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/43

 uncle; such wrath that he would have to fly his home, and then he and Krista would be just in the same plight. This he did not succeed in bringing about, but it was not for want of trying.

Riha’s wife greeted him with these words, “Haven’t you said farewell to that precious bride of yours,” she said. “At last we have got rid of her, the bread-wasting vagabond—that little pet of thine. We sha’nt have to scrape together cotton gowns for her any longer, nor take care lest her soft hands get callosities upon them.”

To that Venik replied, “For all you say I know why you have driven her forth. It is because my dead father loved us dearer than the cottage. You would gladly be rid of me, too, because all you care about is the cottage. But you wont succeed in that, I tell you.”

These words enraged Riha’s wife because they were true, and because she saw that Venik began to have an inkling of her own bad intentions. And when at supper she told her goodman what Venik had said, the day of judgment. was rehearsed in that building. Riha hunted for Venik to teach him how to speak to his aunt in future, and when Venik was not to be found, he said that it should stand over till morning, and that he would give it him with his breakfast.

But he never gave him anything more at breakfast. Venik had already migrated, wallet and all,